Bruised
by Burbank
Summary: Yusuke is mourning Genkai's death at the cave. Kurama tries to comfort him. Kurama/Yusuke


'I've been crying a hell of a lot more ever since they brought me back to life.' Yusuke sobbed into his knees while he sat by the cave where Genkai had passed her power to him with legs pulled up to his chest.

It just wasn't fair. Nothing was fair.

If he hadn't been forced into this damn tournament, she wouldn't have even been anywhere near Toguro. If he'd just been stronger the first time around, Toguro would be dead. He slammed the ground with his fist with a guttural yell.

"Settle yourself, Yusuke." A very calm and soothing voice came from behind him.

"Stupid fox." Yusuke growled, "You have no damn place to tell me what to do!" The teen jumped up and faced Kurama. "You have no idea..." He swallowed back more tears as he made a hurried attempt to wipe away the ones that were already on his face. "You have no fucking idea!"

"I have a very good idea, actually. I know what happened, I sensed it and came to check on you, Yusuke." Kurama could see that Yusuke was seconds from flying into a rage. He'd caught Koenma just moments before arriving by Yusuke's side and told him to give him an hour with the boy. If Yusuke was going to lash out physically, he wanted it to be with him, and not the unprepared godling. "You're going to have to get over this quickly, Yusuke. We don't have much time to grieve, lest you'd like to be among those that are being grieved over." He knew his words were harsh and he meant them to be.

"Kurama, I swear if you don't shut the hell up, I'm gonna..." Yusuke raised his balled up fists to his sides in one of his more primitive fighting stances.

"Please, Yusuke, by all means." Kurama said, an eyebrow raised and his arms crossed against his chest.

Yusuke didn't need an invitation; by the end of Kurama's sentence, he'd already started swinging. The kitsune cursed to himself as he hopped away out of the swing's reach, wondering how Yusuke had gotten so quick in such a short amount of time. He raised his arms into a defensive stance and beckoned Yusuke with a nod.

"Asshole." Yusuke muttered before he pounced at Kurama. He assaulted the fox with a barrage of punches that had an immense amount of spirit power behind them. He soon became lost in his rage, not caring that it was Kurama who was struggling to dodge his attacks. All he could see was red.

Kurama had originally planned to counsel the grieving teen while they sparred, thinking releasing pent up energy and thoughts at the same time would help him more than anything could. Unfortunately, this didn't come close to what happened. He found himself barely able to escape Yusuke's attacks after a few minutes of the onslaught and it made him seriously rethink his approach.

And as an unexpected kick to the side of his head made contact, he knew something had to change. Before he had a chance to gather his bearings, Yusuke was upon him and had knocked him off his feet and into a tree with a powered strike to his gut. Kurama groaned as he slumped down to the base of the tree. This truly had been an exercise in futility.

"Enough, Yusuke." He announced, but Yusuke heard none of it. The detective's rage was blinding him, and he was approaching the kitsune quickly. Kurama got to his feet as soon as he could and finally decided to take a quick offensive. He propelled himself forward in the air by jumping up and shoving himself off of the tree with his feet. Yusuke wasn't expecting this attack, and was sacked. The two boys landed on the grass with a muffled thud, and Kurama quickly pinned Yusuke's wrists down.

"Enough, Yusuke." He repeated. Yusuke had taken to wiggling underneath Kurama, and much to Kurama's surprise, it induced goosebumps... However, he knew it was not the time to address why the detective writhing below him felt as nice as it did. "I said enough!" He shouted as he delivered a solid punch to Yusuke's face. The wiggling stopped.

"Ku-" Yusuke started softly, he looked up at Kurama with a pained look, and Kurama felt every single one of his heart strings being pulled at.

"It's alright." Kurama said as he stood up and reached a hand out to help Yusuke up. The teen took the hand and Kurama pulled him up and into an embrace. "And it will be alright. We will be alright. She will be alright."

Yusuke buried his head into Kurama's shoulder and began to sob once more. "It's my fault, Kurama. I had so many chances to stop this from happening."

Kurama shook his head and held Yusuke tighter, "Don't you ever blame yourself for this. The only one you should blame is Toguro. You will have your revenge, and you will have your victory."

"I know I will." Yusuke stilled himself and let out a sigh, his face still buried against Kurama's shoulder. "But revenge won't bring her back, fox boy."

"It will see that justice is served."

"I've never cared about that."

"You will this time."

The two stayed as they were for a few moments, Yusuke taking in what comfort he could from Kurama's embrace.

"Kurama, can I ask you a favor?" Yusuke asked suddenly, he pulled himself out of the embrace and looked Kurama straight in the eyes. He noticed a bruise beginning to form right under Kurama's left eye from where he'd kicked him. He brushed over it with his thumb and bit his lower lip, trying not to start crying again. The two of them had never fought before and he had always wanted to keep it that way. It was jarring to see Kurama's face tarnished; he felt angry at himself for having been the cause of it.

"Yes, of course." Kurama got chills from the touch and without thinking reached up to hold Yusuke's hand in place. He felt the hand stiffen under his own.

"I want..." Yusuke began, he opened his hand up and cupped it on Kurama's face without leaving the hold. "I just wanna go." Kurama looked at him, a little unsure of what he meant. "Not now, fox boy." He managed a small smile and brought his hand back down to his side. "When the tournament's done, take me somewhere."

"Somewhere leaves us a lot of options, Yusuke." Kurama chuckled, relieved to have seen a smile from Yusuke.

"Anywhere, really. I just want it to be with you."

Kurama's breath hitched in his throat. He wasn't sure how to respond because he was unsure of Yusuke's intentions. Up until the tournament, he and Yusuke were simply occasional teammates, however, they had developed a strong bond over struggling to continue winning against the odds; and something definitely changed for the kitsune after he heard about Yusuke's fight with Bakken from Botan. He could not and would not call it love, as it surely wasn't that deep yet, but what he could say for sure is that he was more fond of the spirit detective than he'd ever been of any human besides his mother, but this was definitely a different sort of fondness.

"I want to be able to thank you for everything." Yusuke said softly. "The right way when we're off of this damn island." He looked over Kurama's shoulder and began walking away from the kitsune. "But right now, if it's fine by you, I've got a lot of thinking to do."

Kurama nodded and started the walk back to the hotel. He met with Koenma on the way and told him where Yusuke had gone. When Koenma asked why he'd insisted on seeing Yusuke first, he simply traced his hand over the bruise and continued walking.

* * *

This one was a little spur of the moment and very unplanned. I'll probably add in another chapter to wrap it up because I don't really want to end it on this note. I'm definitely not promising anything though, haha.  
I'd really appreciate reviews, especially on Yusuke's character, because I have a hard time voicing things that come from him for some reason.

Thanks for reading!


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